Tyler Collishaw
Founder, The Epiphany Brand
THE BACK STORY
Tyler Collishaw came from “across the pond” to pursue his dream of becoming a professional soccer player. But once he arrived stateside, the Hull, England, native noticed a problem that water alone simply wasn’t going to fix.
“While I was injured, I kind of went on a crusade across America just trying to figure out what is the problem here and what is going on with my towel. (As athletes) showering so much, my teammates and I were probably cleaner than 99% of the population, but we were having the same problems,” Collishaw recalls about the inspiration behind his company, The Epiphany Brand, and its debut towel spray product. “I met with microbiologists across America, read the studies they have carried out, and did more research online. That’s when I realized that towels are covered in bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc. and no one really knows about it.”
Epiphany has created a unique spray to tackle the problems towels can cause while educating people about a problem that they didn’t know about before Towels. As detailed in a video on the Epiphany’s homepage, up to 260,000 bacteria and fungi can infect a towel within 24 hours of use, a number which can grow each time before being laundered. This, Collishaw says, can lead to the acne flare-ups his former college teammates were experiencing or worse, conditions such as staph infections, making the need to eliminate the bacteria and fungi crucial to a safe, sanitary bathing environment. Epiphany will continue to develop products that make towels cleaner, safer, and fresher.
CROSS TRAINING
With the former 2018 MLS SuperDraft prospect knowing he would need funding to pursue his dream of eliminating terrible towel trouble, pursuing funding from Main Street Ventures became his top priority. After speaking with advisors and attending meetings to learn more about grant opportunities, Collishaw found commonalities and community between Epiphany and other young companies and knew the grant program was a path to pursue.
Reflecting back on the experience, being an athlete definitely helped prepare him for life as an entrepreneur.
“In (both situations), you’ve got to perform under and deal with pressure. In sports, you’ve got people criticizing you, analyzing your performance and you have to put that in the back of your mind and focus on what’s best for the team,” he says. “You’ve got to have that fearlessness when it comes to taking risks as a startup/entrepreneur; there will be many times when people will criticize you, your business, your ideas and you just have to black it out.”
WHY MAIN STREET VENTURES
Collishaw says the support of Main Street Ventures has been crucial in preparing
the national launch of his company’s product on Thursday, May 25 – National Towel Day. He says other entrepreneurs would be wise to pursue the help of Main Street Ventures, “even if their idea is just on a napkin.”
“I traveled America for a year before I started this business, meeting founders of startups, but also vice presidents and CEOs of huge Fortune 500 corporations. The one thing they told me was ‘There’s always someone that’s smarter than you,’” he says. “Even if you're very knowledgeable about branding or marketing or something like that, as a startup founder, you need to (have) someone else that knows more about (other aspects of the business, like) supply chains, for example.”
Collishaw believes Main Street Ventures is full of the right people to bring ideas to fruition.
“Main Street Ventures has such a great scope of people that they work with, they can put you in touch with someone that recognizes your weakness and help fix it. In terms of investment, if you're looking for people in the local area that might fund your early rounds, Main Street Ventures has people they can put you in touch with,” he says. “Even if you don't get an investment the first time, the feedback that you get from it can help you come back in the next cycle and have a more refined pitch, which will help you in the long run.”
